Spend our money on tuition, not trips to Asia

The dismissal of Alison Hayman and the VC’s trip to Asia have called into question how well university money is being spent.

The university recently dismissed Dr Alison Hayman, a lecturer who served Bristol’s Veterinary Sciences department for 15 years. Her efforts to secure grants to fund her research were deemed unsatisfactory, despite UCU’s recent claims there are 387 lecturers of the same category who failed to secure any money whatsoever.

It’s outrageous that a lecturer who made a valued contribution to the university should be fired over grant money. Especially when the uni clearly has the money to support nearly 400 other lecturers’ research.

Since the rise in tuition fees, students at universities across the country have been told time and again just how essential funding is to maintaining the standard of UK higher education. Just this month, we’ve heard how Vice Chancellor Sir Eric signed a letter to the Labour Party recommending they do not lower tuition fees if elected this year.

He thinks your tuition fees shouldn’t be any lower

Despite this, Epigram recently found many students are paying more than what their course actually costs, leading many to wonder where this surplus money is going. One can assume as a leading research university that a lot of it is spent on research. Why is it then that the university could not retain Dr Hayman?

To top it off, we discover the university spent £20,000 on the Vice Chancellor’s January jolly to Asia and Australia with his wife. Claims the trip was a waste of money aside, the amount spent on it could have been cut in half had Sir Eric’s wife not accompanied him on this business trip.

Sir Eric spent Jan travelling to popular gap yah destinations in South East Asia

As “essential” as the links with other universities he went to visit may be, the university surely cannot justify firing good lecturers while spending almost the cost of someone’s degree on this trip. They are far too concerned with the long term and not enough with the short term needs of current students.

If the events of the last month show us anything, it is that the university needs to reconnect with its academic intentions. I’m not saying we should get everything for nothing, but if we are paying this money we need to see the rewards here and now: more contact time, improved departments and more of a commitment to making our money go further by the university top brass.